A group calling itself Inter-Party Coalition for National Sovereignty has called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to constitute an independent commission of inquiry to investigate alleged acts of corruption at the Presidency in relation to the Kwesi Nyantakyi case.
The group said former Ghana Football Association (GFA) president, Kwesi Nyantakyi, made damning revelations in the Number 12 undercover documentary by Anas Aremeyaw Anas which cannot be glossed over.
Mr Nyantakyi was caught on tape claiming he will be able to secure contracts for supposed investors if they parted with some $12 million to be used to influence President Akufo-Addo, Vice-President Bawumia, the Minister of Roads and Highways and his Deputy.
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Even though Mr Nyantakyi has rendered an apology to the presidency for what he called the “spur of the moment” talk, the coalition believes otherwise.
Spokesperson of the coalition and National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah at a press conference Wednesday said Mr Nyantakyi was emphatic and “revealed how, through huge cash payments to the President and Vice-President and a number of key government officials, supposed investors can win lucrative contracts.”
He said the development leaves “a pile of uncertainty around the highest office of the land”.
Explaining further, Mr Mornah was of the view that the Presidency “stands considerably tarnished [and] they will require the deepest and broadest inquest to ascertain the veracity or otherwise [of Nyantakyi’s claims]. The presidency is the embodiment of the authority of the state and for its image to be brought into question in this manner demands a robust response”.
For him, the claims are of the gravest kind and have “damaged the image of the Presidency of the Republic of Ghana and all those who were mentioned”.
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The matter, Mr Mornah said, cannot be limited to football corruption, adding: “Several things have been done which smack of attempts to divert attention from the profound damaging disclosures made by Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi in the video”.
The coalition said it does not believe that Mr Nyantakyi “was just running his mouth” as suggested by some government officials, insisting “it defies comprehension” and that Mr Nyantakyi is a prominent global figure whose “words cannot be taken lightly”.
Mr Mornah said Mr Nyantakyi is known to have political affiliations to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and was one of the few to be granted access to President Akufo-Addo after the party won the 2016 elections.
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He said Mr Nyantakyi has been a financier of the NPP and exhibited deep knowledge about the inner workings of the NPP government and “described with admirable precision a number of key government projects and the financing arrangements around them”.
“Mr Nyantakyi spoke the truth when he said that contractors who got jobs during the Mahama administration and whose payments have been outstanding will never be paid. As he put it, ‘Those contractors will rot’”.